I Have A Good Question About Sleep Apnea

[CITY BOY]

I was diagnosed with Chronic Sinusitis in the service and had a bunch of problems with this condition since I got out. In the year 1999 I had to have nasal surgery due to polyps, swollen and infected turbinites, which they cleaned out most of the inside of my head per se. After the surgery every thing went down hill fast, headaches, ear pain and the worst of the surgery was the severe Obstructive sleep apnea that started three months after the surgery. I applied for Chronic Sinusitis in January 2007 and received 10% then got it upgraded to 30% back to the effective date of Jan 2007. My question is this, under the reasons section of this decision the VA said, "The 30% evaluation seems to most closely approximate the level of your disability, as your condition has caused you to undergo surgery use a CPAP machine for OSA and request medication to help you sleep due to you chronic symptoms". Does this statement mean that the VA acknowledges that the OSA is secondary to my Chronic sinustitus?

[sharon]

No, You have to apply for Sleep Apnea secondary to your Sinus Condition. Sleep Apnea with a CPAP is rated at 50 percent.

[Angelo Hurtado]

No, You have to apply for Sleep Apnea secondary to your Sinus Condition. Sleep Apnea with a CPAP is rated at 50 percent.

indeed...i got 50% for it

[broncovet]

I agree with Berta. If you have OSA secondary to sinusitis that causes you to use a CPAP, that would be a combined rating of 70%...50% for OSA with CPAP, and 30% for sinusitis..those combine to 70% using the VA fuzzy math.

[vaf]

No, You have to apply for Sleep Apnea secondary to your Sinus Condition. Sleep Apnea with a CPAP is rated at 50 percent.

How does the Roberson decision impact this?

"The VA is required to consider all applicable regulations implicated by the evidence, 38 U.S.C. §7104(a), and all theories reasonably presented by the evidence, i.e., a claim for service connected hypertension; the VARO has the duty to sympathetically develop all claims presented by the evidence. Roberson v. Principi, 251 F.3d 1378, 1380 Fed. Cir. (2001)."

If the VA knew the veteran had OSA by the evidence in its possession, and also realized it was secondary to the service connected sinusitis, should they not have viewed this as an implied claim, according to Roberson?

If I were the veteran, I'd argue that for an earlier effective date. Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

[out_here04]

oh, hell, ptsd, triggered, by, some, a--wipe, concerned, about, a, @#$%^&* comma,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Bonzai]

out_here04,

After about 10 minutes of meditation; I have decided to answer your post. You really don't want to know my original response...

The reason I made the post about the comma, was that if there was one inserted, it would have made the entire sentence different and more favorable to the veteran. It would have meant that because of the service-connected condition, both surgery and the subsequent use of a CPAP machine were required.

Before calling someone names, it might behoove you to research a little. In my signature, I have posted my MOS's proudly and was one of the last 96 Charlies before they converted us to 97 Echos. If anyone has doubts about my qualifications, then one of the senior members here can ask me.